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I recently wrote on the need for contentment. I wrote that losing touch with contentment renders accomplishments, achievements and acquisitions hollow – they do not satisfy. Success without contentment is not success at all. It has been said that the happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they simply make the best of everything. And they understand that contentment …

I have a friend who is a “man of means.”  He has a fair degree of resources at his disposal.  He owns a large company, with hundreds of employees.  He has the wealth to do what many only dream of. He is a good man.  He is a big-hearted man.  He is a generous man.  He is a kind man. …

My wife and I have 2 sons who are now 22 and 21 years old.  Every season of our sons’ growth and development was filled with celebrations and challenges, delights and disappointments.  But such is parenting. One of the best things I did with my sons was very simple, yet it had profound impact in their lives.  For 10 years, …

Have you ever heard of the DEW Line? If you haven’t, don’t feel too bad.  It was operational between 1957 and the late 1980’s, then deactivated between 1988 and 1993.  DEW stands for Distance Early Warning. During the Cold War the enemy of the west was communism, and the big, bad bully of communism was the Soviet Union.  In an …

Leadership is tough.  It’s not for the faint of heart. When you are a leader not everyone is going to like you.  Hey, if you want everyone to like you, you should probably stay away from leadership and start giving away ice cream. One of the toughest aspects of leadership is confrontation.  People need correction and directional shifts from time …

Integrity is defined as, “Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.” In research on leadership, integrity is consistently rated as one of the most important character traits of a respected leader.  It is often considered a ‘given’ – the basis upon which all other leadership traits are built.  After all, if you cannot count on a …

When you think of great leaders who do you think of? Perhaps history changers?  Men and women who changed the course of history through their convictions, commitments, character and courage:  Winston Churchill?  Rosa Parks?  Theodore Roosevelt?  Martin Luther King Jr.?  Mother Teresa?  Julius Caesar?  Nelson Mandela?  Margaret Thatcher? Socrates?  Catherine the Great?  Queen Victoria? They are all epic leaders who …

My dad taught me to give a taste of my character in every handshake. “When you shake someone’s hand son, you need to make sure you drive your hand in deep and give ‘em a good squeeze.  Look ‘em in the eye and say, ‘Good to meet you!’  Don’t hold on too long – just enough to give a good …

Have you ever had a long conversation with someone, and then in the midst of your social intercourse there is a nugget of pure gold? Something is said that stops you right in your tracks. And that little something has far more weight to it than you initially understood it to have. But somehow, someway in the midst of the …

“I’ll take courage from that! Thank you.”, she replied. What did she say? Did I hear her correctly? “I’ll take courage from that.” All I did was try to encourage her. And then it dawned on me… The true purpose of encouragement is to help people to be courageous. It’s to help people take courage. We had been at the …